Buman104A Organisational Behaviour For Culturally Assessment Answers

At the end of this subject students will be able to:
1. Explain the concepts of organisational behaviour and culture and analyse the work of selected organisational behaviour theorists.
2. Interpret patterns of individual behaviour and motivational factors in the work environment.

3. Evaluate current organisation practice to develop strategies to understand and manage employee behaviour.
4. Assess the use of power, politics and influence in organisations in both the public and private sectors.
5. Critically examine the role of leadership in the culture of an organisation.

6. Evaluate how managerial and organisational performance can be enhanced by understanding organisational behaviour in the employment relationship and psychological contract.

Answer:

Introduction

In today’s competitive business world, organisations focus on generating a competitive advantage by effectively managing their workforce. The corporations focus on implementing human resource management (HRM) policies in order to reach their strategic goals by understands how to explain, predict and influence the behaviour of individuals and teams at the workplace (Jiang et al. 2012). In this report, the case study of Domino’s will be evaluated since the corporation is focused on increasing its staff members in Australia and New Zealand while increasing their remuneration packages as well. In this report, the key factors which influence the group effectiveness will be evaluated to create selection criteria for Dominos. This report will evaluate various leadership styles which assist in managing diversity at the workplace to achieve organisational effectiveness. Lastly, this report will evaluate the nature of group conflicts in organisations, and various recommendations for Dominos will be given for managing conflict and stress at the workplace. 

Following are various factors which influence the group effectiveness and result in affecting the performance of employees at Dominos.

• Cohesiveness

Group cohesiveness is a key factor which affects the performance of team members. Members of a team which is highly cohesive are likely to be committed to their jobs, and they are willing to strive for excellence. The cohesiveness of a team affects the extent to which the members get along with each other which resulted in affecting the services given to the customers as well (Park et al. 2012). In the case of Dominos, effective cohesiveness leads to increased efficiency in the workplace because the work of each employee is dependent on another.

• Communication

Without effective communication, cohesive between team members cannot establish. The corporation must develop communication channels between employees and the management so that they can disclose their issues which avoid workplace disputes (Rongen et al. 2013).

• Role identity

The role of each member must be clearly identified in a team in order to avoid conflict. All the team members must know their responsibilities to avoid which diversity the efforts and developing subject matter experts.

• Stability

There must be a level of stability between the team members and project leaders to maintain stability in team performance as well. A team must have low turnover rate, high level of cohesiveness, better communication methods and clearly identified roles which result in bringing stability to the team

• Team size

By focusing on the size of the team, the managers can focus on maximising the profitability of the team. A large team means there are more resources available to achieve a goal (Geaney et al. 2013). On the other hand, management of a smaller team is easy because there are fewer conflicts, cohesiveness and performance of each member can be easily identified.

Following is a list of team-member selection criteria which are affected by factors mentioned above that can be used by Dominos to select a Dominoid to build a solid team.

Honest and straightforward: All team members must be honest to maintain the integrity of the team and the company. The person must be able to communicate freely to build relationships and identify the role (Tekleab & Quigley 2014).

Reliable: Dominoid should be reliable members on which other team members and customers can rely on to build a cohesive relationship.

Positive attitude: Dominoids must have a positive attitude when they engage with team members and customers to create a positive environment in the workplace. 

In order to select team members in Dominos to expand its operations in Australia and New Zealand, the management should adopt the following three selection methods which will ensure the validity and acceptability of the organisation and applicants.

• Personality tests

Firstly, there are certain personality traits which Dominos want in its team members to increase the effectiveness of the entire team. Thus, in order to find Dominoids, the company should conduct personality tests to identify key traits of candidates. By evaluating the key personality traits, the corporation will be able to build a team with similar personal members that improve cohesiveness and result in increasing the effectiveness of the team (Klehe et al. 2012). It will assist in ensuring the validity and acceptability of the company and applicants.

• Skill tests

Another method is using skill test to determine whether the members are able to handle the pressure at the workplace while not compromising the quality of their work (Klehe et al. 2012). The management should identify whether the candidates for the job have the skills to become Dominoids.

• Interview

Personal one-on-one interviews are classic ways to identify that candidates have the ability, skills and personality to work in the team (Geaney et al. 2013). In the case of Dominos, the managers can conduct personal interview with selected candidates along with team managers to ensure that they select those candidates who have validity and acceptability of the company and other members. 

Dominos has hired a culturally diverse workforce through its restaurants in Australia and New Zealand, and it promotes workplace diversity as well. Following are various leadership styles which can assist Dominos in appropriately managing its culturally diverse workforce to achieve organisational effectiveness and cultural appropriateness.

1. Authentic leadership style

As per the study of Benedictine University, the corporation and leaders have to be more authentic if they have wanted to create a more diverse and inclusive organisation (BEN, 2016). The authentic leadership approach focuses on building the legitimacy of the leader through honest relationships with employees that can be achieved by valuing their inputs in the organisation and an ethical foundation (Wong & Laschinger 2013). In the case of Dominos, this leadership style can ensure that the management is authentic and honest with the employees to understand the diversity issues faced by them in the workplace. In this leadership approach, the management will implement appropriate policies to tackle these issues and promote diversity in the workplace.

1. Servant leadership style

The main goal of this leadership approach is to serve the employees, and the leader focuses on their needs. This theory is opposed to traditional leadership theories which are focused on maximising the benefit of the organisation rather than employees. In order to achieve team effectiveness, this approach focuses on fulfilling the demands and requirements of employees that assist the leaders in building a strong relationship with them (Peterson, Galvin & Lange 2012). This leadership approach supports diversity at the workplace because it builds a solid foundation, give power to employees, push healthy competition, communication a shared vision and recognise the success of diverse teams which leads to effective management of cultural diversity at the workplace.

1. Ethical leadership

Ethical leadership approach focuses on complying with ethical beliefs and philosophies while taking business decisions. This theory is based on values such as trust, consideration, fairness, honesty, and others. Diversity is supported and promoted under this leadership approach because the managers ensure that employees act ethically in a team (Demirtas & Akdogan 2015). They ensure that employees did not have to face discrimination in the workplace based on their culture, caste, race, or colour. Thus, this leadership approach can assist Dominos in promoting and managing diversity in the workplace. 

Organisational conflicts are defined as the state of disagreement or misunderstanding between employee which result due to actual or perceived dissent of resources, needs and relationship between team members. In case a conflict between the opinion of employees and the management contradicts, then it leads to workplace conflicts. The nature of conflicts is different from the competition because they occur when two or more parties pursue two or more mutually exclusive goals at the same time (Prause & Mujtaba 2015). Conflicts arise out of two perceptions, and they are the result of the deliberate behaviour of team members. An organisation conflict is a major source of workplace stress among employees which resulted in reducing their performance. Conflicts arise between two or more employees or between employees or the management result in adversely affecting the performance of other members of the team as well. Conflicts among team members lead to reducing the effectiveness of the entire team. It makes it difficult for them to work together and achieve common organisational goals.

Conflicts have a negative impact on individuals, teams, and the company. In the case of individuals, there are various mental health concerns raise due to conflicts between employees. Many times employees face negative consequences such as lack of sleep, loss of appetite, headaches, obesity, and others (Forth et al. 2013). Employee absenteeism is another potential negative impact of conflicts between employees or with the management. The performance of an entire team is based on effective collaborative working between team members; however, conflicts lead to reducing the effectiveness of entire team. The effectiveness of a team is based on cohesiveness between team members and conflicts result in reducing the performance of other team members which adversely affects its effectiveness (Sonnentag, Unger & Nagel 2013). In the case of organisation, the rate of attrition increases due to conflicts among employees. The human resource department finds it difficult to retain talented staff members and motivating them to achieve common organisational goals. Effective management of conflicts is a key part of effective leadership approach without which the corporation cannot succeed. 

Following are various recommendations for Dominos which can assist the company in managing conflicts and stress at the workplace relating to communication challenges of a culturally diverse workforce.

• Effective communication channels

Firstly, Dominos should focus on implementing effective communication channels between employees and the management which enable them to easily share their queries and issues with the management. The communication channels will enable the employees to share the discriminatory behaviour they face in the organisation, and it enables the management to tackle these issues within appropriate timeframe before the matter escalate and turn into a workplace conflict (Moore 2014). Dominos can conduct monthly meetings with employees along with one-on-one interviews to encourage employees to share the issues which they face with the management to resolve them without reasonable time.

• Diversity training

Employees from different cultural backgrounds work at Dominos, therefore, the company should provide diversity training to its employees and the management so that they can learn about other cultures which will assist them in becoming more culturally appropriate. In most cases, people rely on stereotypes while communicating with another person when they did not have knowledge about their cultural background (Prause & Mujtaba 2015). The diversity training will assist employees learn about the right information which assists them in avoid taking any actions which might be considered as wrong in other cultures which will avoid workplace disputes and promotes diversity among employees.

• Strict actions

The management of Dominos should focus on strictly implementing diversity policies to avoid discrimination in the workplace. Any employee or managerial personnel who did not comply with diversity policies or engage in discriminatory behaviour should be punished accordingly to teach others a lesson that discriminatory behaviour will not be tolerated. A good example is set by Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, who fired the senior developer who sent a discriminatory memo to employees (Swisher 2017). Similarly, lack of diversity policy can cause workplace conflicts and stress which adversely affects the effectiveness of the entire team, therefore, strict actions should be taken against those who are culturally inappropriate or engaging in discriminatory behaviour with other team members. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, selecting of right members is important for Dominos to increase group effectiveness in the workplace. The company should evaluate traits of candidates before hiring them in the organisation to ensure that they are honest, talented, positive and reliable individuals. Dominos should choose personality tests, skill tests and interview methods to find the key characteristics of candidates to ensure the validity and acceptability of the organisation and the applicants. The leadership styles have a significant impact on how diversity managed at the workplace and the management of Dominos can choose between servant, ethical and authentic leadership approach. Due to diversity factors, group conflicts can occur in Dominos which adversely affect the performance of individuals, teams and the organisations, thus, various recommendations are given to address these issues such as diversity training, implementation of communication channels, and strict actions against those who violate these policies. These factors will enable Dominos in hiring talented managers to build a solid team which will assist the organisation in achieving its corporate goals. 

References

BEN 2016, ‘Diversity & Inclusion Require Authentic Leadership, says New Research’, BEN, 5 June 2016, viewed 29 October 2018, < https://cvdl.ben.edu/blog/diversity-inclusion-require-authentic-leadership-research/ >.

Demirtas, O & Akdogan, AA 2015, ‘The effect of ethical leadership behavior on ethical climate, turnover intention, and affective commitment,’ Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 130, no. 1, pp. 59-67.

Forth, J, Kersley, BE, Lardies, CA, Bryson, A, Bewley, H, Dix, G & Oxenbridge, S 2013, Inside the workplace: findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey, Routledge, Abingdon.

Geaney, F, Kelly, C, Greiner, BA, Harrington, JM, Perry, IJ & Beirne, P 2013, ‘The effectiveness of workplace dietary modification interventions: a systematic review’, Preventive medicine, vol. 57, no. 5, pp. 438-447.

Jiang, K, Lepak, DP, Hu, J & Baer, JC 2012, ‘How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms’, Academy of management Journal, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 1264-1294.

Klehe, UC, Kleinmann, M, Hartstein, T, Melchers, KG, König, CJ, Heslin, PA & Lievens, F 2012, ‘Responding to personality tests in a selection context: The role of the ability to identify criteria and the ideal-employee factor’, Human Performance, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 273-302.

Moore, CW 2014, The mediation process: Practical strategies for resolving conflict, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey.

Park, S, Park, WW, Kim, S & Kim, CY 2012, ‘Team learning and creativity: the roles of exploitation and team cohesiveness’, Journal of Organizational Psychology, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 70-80.

Peterson, SJ, Galvin, BM & Lange, D 2012, ‘CEO servant leadership: Exploring executive characteristics and firm performance’, Personnel Psychology, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 565-596.

Prause, D & Mujtaba, BG 2015, ‘Conflict management practices for diverse workplaces’, Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, vol. 6, no. 3, p. 13.

Rongen, A, Robroek, SJ, van Lenthe, FJ & Burdorf, A 2013 ‘Workplace health promotion: a meta-analysis of effectiveness’, American journal of preventive medicine, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 406-415.

Sonnentag, S, Unger, D & Nägel, IJ 2013, ‘Workplace conflict and employee well-being: The moderating role of detachment from work during off-job time’, International Journal of Conflict Management, vol., 24, no. 2, pp. 166-183.

Swisher, K 2017, ‘Google has fired the employee who penned a controversial memo on women and tech’, Recode, 7 August 2017, viewed 29 October 2018, < https://www.recode.net/2017/8/7/16110696/firing-google-ceo-employee-penned-controversial-memo-on-women-has-violated-its-code-of-conduct >.

Tekleab, AG & Quigley, NR 2014, ‘Team deep-level diversity, relationship conflict, and team members' affective reactions: A cross-level investigation’, Journal of Business Research, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 394-402.

Wong, CA & Laschinger, HK 2013, ‘Authentic leadership, performance, and job satisfaction: the mediating role of empowerment’, Journal of advanced nursing, vol. 69, no. 4, pp. 947-959.